North Korean Missile Test No Worry, U.S. Says

A senior U.S. official today expressed no concerns about North Korea’s test yesterday of a short-range missile, which occurred amidst developments in the ongoing standoff over the Stalinist state’s nuclear weapons program, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 19).

“It’s not a political or diplomatic act,” Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, lead U.S. negotiator at the six-party talks, said in Tokyo.

“The North Korean army has these tests from time to time.  It’s a schedule based on their military training and testing program,” he added.

Pyongyang has fired four short-range missiles, at least some of which are believed to be ground-to-ship or ship-to-show weapons with a range of 60 miles, over the last month.  Yesterday’s test came three days after North Korea announced it had invited International Atomic Energy Agency officials into the country for talks on shutting down the plutonium-producing Yongbyon nuclear reactor (see related GSN story, today; Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, June 20).

Back to top
About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines © Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.